Thursday, May 19, 2011

Hellraiser V: Inferno

***DISCLAIMER*** The following review is entirely my opinion. If you comment (which I encourage you to do) be respectful. If you don't agree with my opinion, that's fine. To each their own. I am just sharing my opinions and perspective. Finally, the reviews are given on a scale of 1-5. 1, of course, being terrible. 2, being not great. 3, being okay. 4, being good and 5, being epic!

Hellraiser V: Inferno - 1 out of 5

For the longest time, the first film in this franchise was the only film I've seen. However, recently I decided to work my way through the series and, after some initial (albeit mild) entertainment from the first three, the last film showed a great dip in the entertainment factor--this is exceptionally notable since the first three films aren't really super entertaining to begin with. Even worse than the last film, Hellraiser V: Inferno changes the dynamic of the series--possibly to freshen up it up or because it was direct-to-DVD, who knows. The biggest two changes to the series is the fact that has very--VERY--little emphasis on gore (surprising since the series was built upon sadomasochism) and decides to become more of a psychological thriller.

The film centers around a corrupt cop (played by Craig Sheffer) who accidentally opens the puzzle box and is sent into a frenzy as he tries to locate a man who calls himself The Engineer. As I stated prior, the film changes up its formula and tries to be a psychological thriller as the cop tries to figure out if everything is real or not around him. This really bothered me about the story because it pretty much did away with the very foundation that is Pinhead. This iconic Cenobite is about physical torture--not psychological torment. This change in format quickly made the film both disappointingly sad and laughable at the same time as it felt like a fish out of water. You really shouldn't be laughing at the struggle the fish (film) is going through but, for some reason, it's a little funny...but not funny enough to be one of those movies (or fish?) that is so bad, it's hilarious to the point it's fun to watch.

To make matters worse and almost like the filmmakers wanted to showcase how low their budget was, their decision to cast Craig Sheffer (don't worry, I haven't heard of him either) as the corrupt cop was a giant mistake as he holds no real capturing screen presence and his acting looks so generic as he growls every line that I started to wonder is Sam Worthington saw this movie and decided to imitate the guy. Combine this lackluster star with a clumsy story in an even more clumsy change of genre for this franchise and I just found in a really uncomfortable movie to sit through--uncomfortable even with the fact the film spends nearly all its time cutting AWAY from the gore. But none of these elements are summing up the worst, most unsettling thing about this film. The aspect that haunted me the entire running length of this movie is the fact I still have another three movies to sit through. They can't all be this bad, right?

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About Me

I'm a geek, an atheist (who is also an ordained reverend), a peanut butter and jelly enthusiast, a man who shares the same name with a popular character from "Parks & Rec" and feels he can't live up to the awesomeness of the fictional character, was proudly banned from Reddit, an occasional Shakespearean performer, and a stand up comic.
Have any questions, recommendations or wanna share any theories on various movies? Email me at RevRonMovies@gmail.com and I'll talk about them on my new Q&A segment!